The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Chronicle Beechwaod The Sun Peopie®. xi ' t ; Ns 4 mese rep Séadie: NoR m“ / A uny? thgifridge door could mean ~ the MW life and death. ~â€" . This is no ordinary vial.. 5 It is not filled with drugs, only information. Informaâ€" tion about you which, in an émergency, might save your life. 4 ~It‘s called the Emergency Information Vial program â€"â€"endorsed by Waterloo Regional Police and supported WW and ambulance drivers. ym is so simple, risk free and easy to institute, Comh"o Don Gerling of the Waterloo yctiys 4 C pril 5. 198$ e between Tife and death Region‘s New Hamburg police department wonders why it hasn‘t caught the public‘s imagination before now. But that‘s all past tense, the idea has caught on with a passion: â€" What the program consists of is an amberâ€"colored vial, an information form asking the person‘s name and pertinent medical information, and a 911 sticker. The form is placed inside the vial, and the vial placed on & shelf inside the fridge door. The fluorescent 911 sticker is placed above the fridge door handle. The sticker on the fridge door identifies to any emergency personnel that the vial containing the information is in the fridge. Gerling suggests people Empty pallets reflect need for food bank Everyday Carolyn Fast, execuâ€" tive director of the Waterloo Region Food Bank, struggles with the idea that food banks are dency on food banks is growing when what is needed is a restrucâ€" turing of the social assistance GIDgHN IMC, + Cnke She lives with the belief that food banks are a Bandâ€"Aid soluâ€" tion to a much larger problem. And she is concerned that depenâ€" aterioo. Ontari system to put the hungry back on their feet. While Fast struggles with these ideas, the reality is that the Food Bank is seeing a sharp increase in the need for food. So much so, Fast contemplated holding, for creased, so did the number o the first time, a spring food drive. â€" requests for food. She had anticipated carryâ€"over _ This could be a result of & stock from the annual Thanksgivâ€" number of factors. suggestec ing‘s drive would last at least into Fast, including easier access for May, but she became aware of a those on social assistance to re depleting stock in early Februâ€" ceive hampers; increasing house ary. Pallets that had been full the prices and interest rates whic same time last year were empty. (Continued on page 3) wateRtoo cunailf® One vial is used per family. Because of the magnitude of the program Gerling requests the vials be used by people with medical conditions, which doesn‘t restrict the program to the elderly. In fact, he said, a mother prepared an information vial for her 18â€" monthâ€"old asthmatic child. And that‘s that. The vial may sit there for years and never be used. On the other hand, the one time it gets used could be the most important. The only thing the individual needs to do is to update stick a passportâ€"type photo on the form for positive identification. The situation becomes more distressing considering more food was brought in during the first two months of the year than last year but supplies can not be kept up. While contributions in creased, so did the number of requests for food. This could be a result of a number of factors. suggested Fast, including easier access for those on social assistance to reâ€" ceive hampers; increasing house prices and interest rates which NP (Continued on page 5)